In this interview, Dan Hymowitz describes the successes and challenges of the Ebola response in Liberia from November 2014 through March 2015. He details the structure of the National Incident Management System in Liberia that responded to Ebola and how the response in greater Monrovia mimicked the national response. He describes the importance of decentralizing the response in greater Monrovia and how methods changed as the number of new cases decreased. He emphasizes the importance of well-defined roles for various actors within the response and details the challenges of government collaboration with international organizations. He also discusses the challenges of the “last mile” of the response and how creativity and flexibility were key at this stage.

At the time of the interview, Dan Hymowitz was the Acting Director of Development and External Relations for the Tony Blair Africa Governance Initiative (AGI). During the West Africa Ebola outbreak in 2014, he took leave from his position as a Senior Advisor at AGI to serve as an Ebola Advisor to the Government of Liberia. In this capacity, he was the chief adviser to the head of the task force that managed the Ebola response in greater Monrovia.